VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Colombo or San Francisco?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Colombo for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Colombo’s own page.

Choose San Francisco for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Colombo 55, San Francisco 25: Colombo leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 48 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, San Francisco 14: Colombo leads by 64 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, San Francisco 42: Colombo leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and San Francisco.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Colombo
46match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboSan Francisco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboSan Francisco
Official languageTamil, Sinhala-
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation1 m16 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboSan Francisco
City population647,557873,965
People per km²17,3611,455
Museums within 10 km1051
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Colombo or San Francisco somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.